Apparatus for compressing aie ok gas



(No Model.) 2 SheetsSheet 1.

E. HILL.

APPARATUS FOR GOMPRESSING AIR 0R GAS.

No. 593,049. Patented Nov. 2, 1897.

B A i H A H WM H (No Model.) -2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

E. HILL. APPARATUS FOR GOMPRBSSING AIR 03 GAS.

No. 593,049. Patented Nov. 2, 1897.

UNITED STATES PATENT @rrrca EBENEZER HILL, OF SOUTH NORVVALK,CONNECTICUT.

APPARATUS FOR COMPRESSING AIR OR GAS.

SIBECIFICATION' forming part of Letters Patent No. 593,049, datedNovember 2, 1897.

Application and August 17,1896.

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EBENEZER HILL, of South Norwalk, in the county ofFairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented a new Improvement inApparatus for Compressing Gas or Air; and I do hereby declare thefollowing, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings andthe letters of reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exactdescription of the same, and which said drawings constitute part of thisspecification, and represent, in

Figure 1, a plan view of an apparatus constructed in accordance with myinvention; Fig. 2, a view thereof in elevation; Fig. 3, a detail view ofone of the charging-stands.

My invention relates to an improved apparatus for charging tanks withcompressed air or gases, the object being to provide a markedlyconvenient apparatus which will secure an economy of fuel, labor, andtime, but, primarily, which will be adapted to have its aircompressorslocated at a central station or at substations, according to thedictation of circumstances, to obvious advantage in several ways.

with these ends in view my invention con: sists in an apparatus havingcertain details of construction and combinations and arrangements ofparts, as will be hereinafter described, and pointed out in the claims,the apparatus being constructed so that any one of its independentair-compressors may be manually turned upon the particular locomotiveconnected with it or diverted into the system, according to the demandsmade thereupon at any one time, and so as to help out the otherair-compressors in charging the locomotives connected with them.

The apparatus chosen for illustration em ploys three air-compressors A,A, and A which may be located at'a central station or in differentsubstations, according to the dietation of circumstances. The saidair-compressors are connected,respectively, by means of pipes B, B, andB with charging-stands G, C, and G which are coupled by means of pipesD, D, and D to a charging-stand coupling-pipe E, which, as shown, has anair-reservoir F connected with it, though in case the pipe E is verylong or in case it is comparatively large in size it may itselfconstitute a the stands, because they are all alike.

$erial No. 502,940. (No model.)

reservoir of compressed air, in which event the air-reservoir F may bedispensed with. The chargingstands O, C, and 0 being connected togetherby the charging-stand coupling-pipe E, which makes them interdependentin use, are in one view of them sections or members of a singlecharging-stand, but inasmuch as they may be in the use of my apparatuswidely separated, though coupled, I have chosen to speak of them asindividual charging-stands from the fact that each one of them'isindependently connected with an air-compressor.

A detail view of the charging-stand O is shown in Fig. 3, which isillustrative of all of This stand comprises valves G and G, which may beof any approved construction, the handle G of the valve G beingconnected by a coupling-lever G with the handle G of the valve G. Whenthe handle G is operated to open the valve G, the valve G will beclosed, and vice versa. A check-valve H, located above the valve G,permits the current to flow through it only in one direction, which isindicated by the arrow h. The charging-stands are thus seen to have twovalved passageways and to constitute a double connection, as it were,between the respective air-compressors and the general apparatus, whichis typified by the charging-stand coupling-pipe E. Thus by opening thevalve G and closing the valve G all of the air compressed by theair-compressor individually connected with the stand will be directedinto the locomotive connected with the stand, while, on the other hand,by closing the valve G and opening the valve G all of the air compressedby the compressor connected with the stand will be diverted from anylocomotive connected with the stand and into the general apparatus,throughout which the pressure will be raised more or less, according tothe pressure in the apparatus at the time and to the pressure of nectedby the locomotive coupling-pipeK to the valve G. The handle G of thesaid valve is now operated to open the valve G, whereby the valve G issimultaneously closed. The pressure in the tank of the locomotive, inthe. compressor A, in the pipe B, in the reservoir F, and in the pipe Ewill now be equalized by compressed air flowing to the locomotivethrough the pipe B and thence through the valve G and locomotivecoupling-pipe K, and.

also by compressed air flowing through the pipe D, check-valve H, valveG, and locomotive coupling-pipe K to the locomotive; but

the equalization of air, as described, is only temporary, for theair-compressor O, continuing to force air through the pipe B, throughthe valve G, and through the coupling-pipe K to the locomotive, willraise the pressure in the locomotive above the pressure in the pipes Dand E and in the connections thereof,

so that the check-valve II will automatically close and prevent any ofthe air flowing from the compressor A from' being deflected into thegeneral system or from going elsewhere than into the locomotive I, thepressure in the tank of Whichwill be gradually raised until the same isfully charged. This then will bethe operation of the apparatus as tocharging the locomotive 1, unless it happens that the action of thecompressors A and A shall raise the pressure in the charging-stands- O"and C and hence in the pipes D and D j and pipe E, sufliciently toovercome the pressure tending to keep the check-valve H closed andautomatically open the same and contribute to the charging of thelocomotive I. When the locomotive I has been charged, the handle-lever Gof the valve G is seized and operated to close the valve G, wherebythrough the office of the lever G the valve G will be opened, afterwhich the compressed air brought to the charging-stand C from the?compressor A through the pipe 13, finding no outlet through the valves Gor H, will pass through the valve G and pipe D into the pipe E, so as toraise the pressure therein and in the connections thereof, including thereservoir F. Now if at the time the valve G is closed and the valve Gopened, on account. of the completion of the charging of the locomotiveI, the locomotives I or I either or both, should come in and beconnected, by means of the pipes K and K with the charging stands C andC the air coming from the i compressor A will pass throughthechargingstand 63 and thence through the pipeE and its connections to thecharging-stands O" and 0 through which it will flow into the tanks ofthe locomotives I or I until the pressure therein is raised by theaction of the compressors A and A with which the said locomotives arenow connected, above the pressure of the air coming from the compressorA, at which time the check-valves of the stands 0 and C will beautomatically closed. Then the air compressed by the compressor 7 A willbe utilized to raise the pressure in the reservoir F and the pipe E andthe connections thereof. The charging of the locomotives I and I will beeffected, of course, in the same manner as the charging of thelocomotive I, which, if it comes in to be charged after the locomotivesI or I have been charged, will be assisted in being charged by theair-compressorsA and A which will make their contribution until. its.own aircompressor A. has raised'the pressure in it sufficiently to closethe check-valve H of its charging-stand.

It will thus be seen that by employing, sev- 7 eral air-compressors asmany charging-stands having independent connectionwith the saidair-compressors and valved as described or equivalently and means forcoupling all of Y the charging-stands together I-am enabled to use allof the compressorsv all of the time, for when any compressor is notforcing air into 1 the tank of a locomotive connected with its owncharging-stand. it is assisting the other compressors in, charging thelocomotives connected with their charging-stands or in raising thepressure in, the air-reservoir or in the coupling-pipes of the system,the particular action of any one compressor at any one time beingdependent, of course, upon the number of. locomotives being charged, thepressure of air in their tanks, and the pressure in. the 5 air-reservoirand in the coupling-pipes.

The .main advantage resulting from the l use of my apparatus lies in itsconcentration (of. several air-compressors upon one locomotive and theseparation of the compressors, i so as to cause them, to actindividually upon 3 the locomotives directly connected with them, andall this in perfect harmony with the de- 1 mands put upon the apparatusat any moment, 3 whereby I secure a marked economy of power 5 and thegreatest possible despatch.

1 It is not necessary, as before stated, that 7 all ofthecharging-stands should be situated f in the immediate vicinity of each.other, for, as before suggested, they may be located. in iwidely-separated sections of a city or town, but however located theywill all be connect- 5 ed together by the chargingstand coupling- I pipeE, which, it long enough and large f enough, may be of such greatcapacity as to itself, constitute an air-reservoir and render the use ofa. special.v air-reservoir, such as F, unnecessary i ors: groupedtogether at a central station or I distributed in substations throughoutalarge area my apparatus secures a great convenience heretoforeunattained.

In, its adaptation to have its air-compress- IIO The peculiar advantagesof my improved apparatus are realized in a measure by employing only twoair-compressors and conjunctive accessories, but the effect is increasedwhen three or more are used, and it is very evident from the descriptionand drawings that the apparatus can be indefinitely extended byduplicating the air-compressors and charging-stands and theirconnections and accessories. I would therefore have it understood that Ido not limit myself to the exact construction shown and described, buthold myself at liberty to make such variations therefrom as fairly fallwithin the spirit and scope of my invention.

Having fully described my inventioil, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-

1. A charging-stand for use in conjunction with an apparatus forcharging tanks, the, with compressed air or gas, the said stand beingadapted to be connected with an air-conipressor, and also with one ormore similar charging-stands, and containing two independent valvedpassageways, one of which has a check-valve and the other twomanualvalves between which the check-valve is interposed.

An apparatus for charging tanks, &c., with compressed air or gas,having" two or more air-compressors, individual chargingstands connectedwith the respective air-compressors, and a charging-stand coupling-pipeconnected with all of the charging-stands which are adapted to havelocomotives connected with them, the valves for the chargingstandsbein gconstructed and arranged to permit the compressed air brought to them bytheir respective compressors to be concentrated upon the particularlocomotives connected with them, or diverted into the system, accordingto the conditions of pressure therein.

3. An apparatus for charging tanks, &c with compressed air or gas,having two or more air-compressors, individual chargingstands connectedwith the respective air-compressors, acharging-stand coupling-pipeconnected with all of the charging-stands which are adapted to havelocomotives connected with them, and an air-reservoir connected with thesaid charging-stand coupling-pipe, and accumulating compressed air whenthe same is not taken by the locomotives attached to the stands.

4. An apparatus for charging tanks, &c., with compressed air or gas,having two or more air-compressors, individual chargingstands connectedwith the respective compressors, and a charging-stand coupling-pipeconnected with all of the charging-stands which are adapted to havelocomotives connected with them, the valves of each charging-stand beingconstructed and arranged to concentrate the pressure of itsair-compressor upon the locomotive attached to it or to divert V suchpressure from it to the other stands.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence oftwo subscribing witnesses.

EBENEZER HILL. \Vitnesses:

JOHN A. OSBORN, JNo. P. TREADWE'LL.

